The Very First
by AmazingWriter123
Summary: Honestly if it is one of you bratty elf-lings… The lively atmosphere was still in the air when the first screams came… All around elves were following… Run home… A certain elvenprince's thrilling experience… Written for the Teitho challenge "Capture" where it was unplaced.


**The Very First **

**Summary: **_**Honestly if it is one of you bratty elf-lings… The lively atmosphere was still in the air when the first screams came… All around elves were following… Run home…**_

**A certain elvenprince's thrilling experience…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Any unfamiliar name will be an OC, they are all I will ever own. **

**Everything belongs to Tolkien. **

**Rating: T **

'It is not fair ada!' protested Legolas loudly.

'It is fair and for your own safety. Going too deep in the forest is dangerous. There is nothing but evil there. The spider venom of the beasts there can be lethal if it goes too deep. Your mother died in the deep forest, I do not want you to go there,' explained Thranduil.

Legolas huffed. 'Please ada. I promise not to get into trouble.'

'Trouble will follow you around my son, whether you want it or not. I will tell you my decision in another half an hour; now go find your friends,' said Thranduil.

Legolas found his best friend Tauriel sharpening her knives. 'Are you coming?' she asked.

'Ada has not decided yet,' he replied.

At that very moment two more of their friends barged in. They were brother and sister, two of the fiercest elves of Mirkwood. Landion and Elwing were their names and both were fearless and fast on their feet, always ready for a fight.

'Legolas, where are your weapons?' asked Elwing swinging her own sword proudly.

'Ada has yet to decide if I get to go or not,' said Legolas gloomily.

'Don't worry, you'll come,' assured Landion, 'I'll ask the king myself if I have to.'

Somebody at the door began to laugh loudly. Landion stormed out to check who the person was.

'Honestly if it is one of you bratty elf-lings I will personally…' he stopped short. King Thranduil stood in front of him, tears of mirth flowing down his cheeks.

'Oh dear,' the king laughed, 'I pity the elf-lings who might have been your victims Landion. I only came to tell Legolas that he may go on patrol in the deep forest. You can give him the news, I must return to my duties.'

Landion obeyed.

'Who was it?' asked Tauriel, wondering what had made even Landion stop short while narrating a threat.

'The king,' said Landion, turning red.

The others burst out laughing. 'What did he say?' asked Legolas, controlling his laughter.

'He says you can come along on patrol. See, I always have such good news to tell everybody,' announced Landion.

'Dear brother, you will never grow up,' said Elwing with a sigh.

'Get your weapons Legolas, we mustn't keep Captain waiting,' said Tauriel seriously.

Tumbling over each other in excitement, the four elves nearly fell down the talan they were in, so they could get to the assembling point. Unfortunately, the captain was below them. They did not notice his presence, but he looked at them and their disorganized ways and chuckled quietly.

After what seemed ages, all four friends were assembled in front of the captain whose name was Hadron, which meant thrower of spears. From what Legolas had heard, it was apt, since the captain was supposedly an excellent thrower.

'Today, we have four newcomers joining us. Please welcome Tauriel, Elwing, Landion and the crown prince-Legolas,' announced the captain.

The crowd of elves cheered. They made room for the newcomers in the middle of the group and Hadron led them on.

Patrol may have been disgusting, grimy and for the strong willed, but it was not boring. It was a four night journey, and the captain had so many stories to tell that they could last a hundred years.

Legolas began to have a great time. Any fear of capture or an attack was now gone. He sang and even danced a jig with Elwing. Everyone loved the younger ones' antics and the camp buzzed with life for those first three nights.

The fourth night was when it all went wrong. The lively atmosphere was still in the air when the first screams came. A cluster of spiders had surrounded them while everyone had been busy merrymaking.

As the first of the foul beasts tore through the camp, Hadron began shouting orders, 'Archers around the fire!' he cried, 'others to the front!'

'Be safe,' Legolas told his friends, before running off to join the other archers. Tauriel gripped her knives and ran at the enemy.

'Best of luck dear brother,' said Elwing. But now that the battle was so real, even her voice had lost its usual cockiness and charm.

Together they unsheathed their swords and ran after Tauriel.

Legolas shot arrow after arrow with deadly aim, knocking down the smaller of the beasts. However the bigger ones needed more than one arrow in them to die. This was not going well. They were going to die, thought Legolas dismally.

From what the situation seemed like, the leader of this group was sending his smaller spiders first, and leaving the bigger and fatal ones for the last.

All around elves were falling. The spiders would bite them with their pincers and the lethal venom would kill them instantly. Legolas allowed himself a moment to look around. The smaller spiders were all gone, but the elves were too few to fight off the big ones.

His own friends were doing quite well. Tauriel was keeping two spiders busy with her knives. Elwing and Landion were taking down each spider with excellent teamwork. Hadron looked busy enough, fighting for his own life and looking out for four youngsters.

Deciding his moment of looking around was over; he loaded an arrow in his bow. When he looked around for a beast to fire at he saw that there were no more spiders.

But the elves were barely left too. Only Hadron, Legolas, Tauriel, Landion and Elwing stood. Another handful were injured, and lay against the trees, the others were dead. They were wrapped up in the black webs of the spiders.

'Run home, their leader will be here soon,' instructed Hadron.

'No,' refused Legolas, 'we cannot just leave you alone. It is either fighting together, or fleeing together, your call Captain.'

'We fight,' decided Hadron, 'but should something happen to me, I want one of you to become Captain.'

They formed a protective circle around the captain, despite his protests. They waited anxious for this skirmish to be over.

Tauriel was about to break the silence, but at that very moment the leader of those spiders came along. Legolas was distracted; his eyes kept flitting over to the dead and injured elves.

The spider's red eyes were fixed on the prince. The beast began to charge.

'Legolas get out of the way!' yelled Elwing.

Legolas stood his ground and reached for an arrow from his quiver. It was empty. Still determined not to go down without a fight, he unsheathed his knives. The spider raised his pincer, prepared to cut him.

At the last moment, the captain pushed Legolas out of the way and took the cut for himself. It went deeper than he intended.

Legolas rushed over to the captain, who lay still on the ground. Blood was oozing from the wound, mixed with a black substance that came from the poison.

'Captain, thank you,' said Legolas, 'you saved my life.'

'That is what I am there for, my prince,' said Hadron with difficulty. Then the brave captain took his last shuddering breath and closed his eyes.

'We must outwit the spider,' he said to his friends loudly, 'it is the only way.'

'How do you want to outwit a spider five times our size?' asked Tauriel, stabbing the creature for the sixth time in a row.

'A trap, of course,' answered Legolas, firing another arrow, 'but I will need your climbing skills Tauriel.'

'I will do what you ask of me,' said Tauriel and drove her knife into the monster for the seventh time. Finally, the spider began to bleed.

Even his blood was like acid, it charred the ground it touched. Elwing and Landion gave a cry of joy at Tauriel's achievement.

Unfortunately at that moment, the staggering spider chose to bleed on Tauriel. She leapt back with a shout of pain.

'Are you alright?' asked Elwing steadying her.

'I am fine,' assured Tauriel, rubbing her burnt arm.

Legolas looked up from where he was crouched. He had formed a lasso with the rope they had been carrying.

'If Tauriel can sling this over the other side of one of the tall trees, we will trap him long enough to get help,' explained Legolas.

'Good one,' remarked Landion, as he began to parry the blows the spider was sending his way.

'We'll keep the spider busy,' decided Legolas, 'you ellyth can set the trap. Once the spider has one of his legs in, both of you have to pull really hard and then tie the rope to the tree trunk.'

'Alright,' agreed Elwing, 'sounds like a plan.'

Legolas quickly gathered arrows from his fallen comrades, and joined Landion.

Together the two friends kept the spider away from the ellyth. Landion would strike at the spider and then while the beast would try to take his revenge, Legolas would shoot him from behind.

By now the spider was a pincushion of arrows.

'We are almost finished,' shouted Elwing, excited.

'Good,' replied Legolas.

For a second his attention was distracted and he did not fire the arrow that was keeping the spider at bay, and the chain of attacks broke.

This resulted in spider turning around after Landion managed to stab him. Legolas wasn't ready, and that was in the spider's favor. He pierced Legolas' side. Thankfully, it was well away from his heart and any other vital organ, so he had time before the poison reacted.

His left side was on fire. The whole world became distant for a moment. He screamed in pain, and his breath came in short spurts.

'Breathe, Legolas, breathe,' encouraged Elwing from where she stood.

With some difficulty Legolas took a deep breath and continued the fight.

'You can get it here, the trap is ready,' informed Tauriel.

'Landion, are you ready?' asked Legolas.

'I am,' confirmed Landion, 'let's do this.'

Legolas was faster on his feet than Landion and so he chose to lure the spider into the waiting trap.

'Come and get me,' he called out teasingly. When the spider did not listen, and turned his attention towards Landion, Legolas fired an arrow at one of its eight legs.

The spider turned around and hissed dangerously. Legolas sighed with relief; he had the reaction he wanted. The prince continued to taunt the spider and lead him towards their carefully set trap.

The whole plan went off much better than any of them had imagined. The spider began to follow Legolas, hissing all the while.

The elf prince led him in numerous twists and turns to the loop, where the ellyth lay in wait. Legolas hoped that the spider would not try to escape while they were pulling him up, because if that happened then they were going to be the spider's next meal.

To their surprise the spider fell for it. The minute one of the eight legs stepped inside the loop, Tauriel and Elwing pulled the rope as hard as they could. The spider hissed and spat on the ground.

'Legolas, we need help, it is too heavy!' cried Tauriel.

Landion and Legolas ran over to where the ellyth were hopelessly tugging at the rope. Landion pulled at the rope and the spider was pulled further away from the ground.

'We mustn't let it move,' said Legolas, worriedly, 'Tauriel can you please keep it busy, if your wound doesn't hurt too much.'

'It does hurt;' admitted Tauriel, 'but someone must do it.'

She unsheathed her knives once again and wiped them on her leggings to get rid of the blood on them. Then she began to go round and round the spider. The creature watched, almost fascinated, and gave up struggling.

Legolas sighed with relief and tugged harder at the rope. The spider was quite high from the ground now, and Landion gave the next order.

'Tie it up, Elwing, tie it up now,' he shouted.

Elwing winced at the volume of his voice. 'I heard you,' she replied and set to work.

Taking one end of the rope she looped it around the tree trunk twice. Pulling it as tight as she could, Elwing knotted the rope.

They had done it! The spider was trapped and nothing and no one but another elf could possibly set him free.

'It is done,' said Legolas, thrilled at his achievement, 'the very first one we ever caught; my friends and that too without outside help.'

All of them knew this was only partly true, and that had it not been for the many elves that had died battling the spiders, they would not have been alive right now.

But at that moment, they didn't care. For the time being, even the burning in Tauriel's arm and the fiery pain in Legolas' side faded.

'We need to get you two to the healers,' said Landion, returning to the reality of the situation.

Legolas groaned; the pain returning. 'You are right,' he agreed, 'and we must get somebody to kill this spider.'

As if it had heard its name being spoken, the spider hissed.

Elwing started to cut the strands of black webs from the dead elves' body. She was trembling with a mixture of fear and grief, never having seen so many dead elves at once before.

'We must leave Elwing,' called Landion gently.

When she did not move from her place he came and lifted her up as if she weighed nothing. Elwing was going to protest but Landion shushed her with a quiet, 'You need help and you know it.'

They arrived at the palace faster than they expected. The gates opened before them, and the four headed towards Thranduil's throne room.

'We were so close to home,' said Elwing softly, so only her brother could hear, 'perhaps that is why captain Hadron wanted us to run home.' At the captain's mention her usually sparkling eyes filled with tears.

'Relax,' soothed Landion, his voice equally quiet.

Thranduil listened to Legolas' story in silence. He bowed his head sadly at the news of Hadron's death.

'Legolas, please lead your friends to the healing rooms. I will send a party of elves to do whatever is required,' said the king.

Once in the healing rooms, Elwing finally spoke. 'What do you think will happen next? She asked in a small voice.

'Ada will make one of us captain, of course,' answered Legolas, 'I wonder whom will he choose.'

'Not Elwing or me, that is for sure,' said Landion, 'we are far too young.'

'I think Legolas will be chosen,' guessed Tauriel.

'I do not want the position,' said Legolas, 'Tauriel can have it. She is well trained and can keep her head in a rough situation.'

Tauriel smiled, 'Thank you so much, I would love to have the position.'

Once they were well rested, Thranduil called them to the throne room.

'I have chosen the next captain of Mirkwood's guard. Tauriel will lead our people as my captain, should we have any need for war,' he announced.

Everybody in the room applauded. Tauriel was loved and respected amongst all elves and she was a brave and fierce warrior. The people would love to have her for a captain.

Tauriel bowed deeply and accepted her title.

Then Thranduil called for another round of applause, this time for all four of the friends, which they accepted politely.

And this memory would stay with them forever, the capture of their very first spider.


End file.
